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Thread: The scarcity of Commodore 64s in the wild

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) treismac's Avatar
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    Default The scarcity of Commodore 64s in the wild

    Is it just my neck of the woods or are C64s hard as hell to find in the wild these days? Not at the flea market, not at garage sales, not on Craigslist, and not at a local retro video game store do I EVER find the Commodore 64. I really dislike purchasing systems/computers online with rolling the dice on if it works or not on top of a hefty shipping and handling charge, but maybe it is time to throw in the towel.

    What say you?

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    Alex (Level 15) Custom rank graphic
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    It is much harder now than it used to be to find these computers, but they're still out there. I didn't find the computer but I found several Vic-20 games a few weeks ago at a yard sale, I was told I missed out on the system as it sold earlier that day. For whatever reason they missed the games, I dug around in boxes to find them.

    It could be your area too, but they are getting harder to find.

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    Pretzel (Level 4)
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    I see them a few times a year but most are beat to hell. The Amigas are far worse.

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    Cherry (Level 1)
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    They pop up once or twice a month on Seattle craigslist but rarely anywhere else. But then I don't see much other vintage computer or gaming stuff in the wild anymore either.

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    Strawberry (Level 2) AdamAnt316's Avatar
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    I definitely see more Commodore 64s than any other vintage computers. Not too long ago, while attending a hamfest, I found several boxes containing three Commodore 64s, two 1541s, and a whole bunch of accessories and software for $20. As others have said, vintage computers in general aren't as plentiful 'in the wild' as they once were, but of the ones still out there, most of them are probably Commodore 64s (makes sense, since something like 21 million of them were made).
    -Adam

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    I often see them on craigslist, but most of the time people want too much for them. If you are gonna actually spend a good amount on one, get a commodore 128 instead of a C64.

    Just did a quick search, maybe I should buy this?
    http://providence.craigslist.org/sys/4624187770.html
    Last edited by bb_hood; 09-01-2014 at 11:01 AM.

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    Cherry (Level 1)
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    Quote Originally Posted by bb_hood View Post
    I often see them on craigslist, but most of the time people want too much for them. If you are gonna actually spend a good amount on one, get a commodore 128 instead of a C64.

    Just did a quick search, maybe I should buy this?
    http://providence.craigslist.org/sys/4624187770.html
    Looks like a decent deal if it works.

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    Banana (Level 7) Atarileaf's Avatar
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    There's a local charity called "Computers for Kids" that take donations of money and old tech so they can build free older pc's for underprivileged youth. Every two weeks they have an indoor yardsale to raise money and every once in a while an old interesting computer or video games show up.

    In the last 3 or 4 months I've found 3 C64's, one boxed, two disk drives, one boxed, a 1702 monitor, tape drives, books, manuals, software by the tray, and never paid more than $10 or $20 for these lots. Got some nice Tandy color computer lots in years past but nothing aside from C64 has shown up in years. Used to be apple II's, Amiga's, Atari 400/800/ST's, Tandy, TI/99, C64, Vic, some others.

    As I mentioned, sometimes video games show up there too - buddy I was with just this past Saturday grabbed loose SMB2, SMB3 and Tetris and got them all for $5 and a bare 360 for $10, which did end up working just fine.

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    your not the only one not finding the 64s.

    I always find vic-20s and ti 99/4a's, oddly enough I found like 3 ti 99/4a's in a dumpster all of them complete and working. not w whole lot of love for them aside from being cool looking..
    I still have 2 I cant get rid of, one I gave away to some one I knew who would like it

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    Banana (Level 7) Atarileaf's Avatar
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    the ti/99's have some surprisingly good arcade ports

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    Great Puma (Level 12) Steve W's Avatar
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    I almost never see C64s around here. I read someplace that one guy at a flea market was buying them all up because he had read that there was a tiny amount of gold on the motherboard, so he bought up several to rip apart and get the gold out of it.

    I rarely saw any old '80s era computers around here other than TRS-80s and TI-99/4As, mainly because both companies were headquartered in this area. It was really rare to see anything else.

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    I happened to find a C64C on the side of the road about a month ago. Took it to a friends to test and it worked (",)

    When it came to finding a good power supply though, now THEY are getting rare! I ended up making my own, which gives me piece of mind since it turns out the originals are rare because they keep dying and taking out your computer while they're at it!
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    I haven't seen one since like the school days of the 80s. I have no idea why but between large flea markets, antique/vintage shops, garage sales and so on I've yet to see a single C64 in at least a decade or more as I really can't remember the last. I haven't seen them on craigslist, but I also don't check the computer area just the games, toys(for antique/vintage) and the free area.

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    Pear (Level 6) Soviet Conscript's Avatar
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    When I lived in the Pittsburgh area a few years ago I came across C64's all the time mostly at local flea markets or via freecycle usually they were cheap enough I picked them up. I had so many at one point I was giving them away to friends. Since I moved to Phoenix I haven't seen any in the wild but I do see them pop up on Craigslist regularly but usually at very inflated prices.

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    Sadly, most of the thrifts near me either no longer accept or "recycle" all of the older computers they receive. Most of the ones that aren't accepted probably end up trashed by the owner, I'd imagine. I do still see Commodore stuff sporadically at garage sales and swap meets and the like, but I used to see them all the time 10-15 years ago.

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    I used to trip over c64s about 10 years ago. They seem to be everywhere. The last big c64 score I got was about 4 years ago when a neighbor said "come over and haul this trunk away before I toss it" and it had 3 c64s, a fast load card, and a few games, and a couple of drives. Ironically the c64 is one system that I don't care at all about, I never had one growing up, I was an Atari 8 bit guy. So in my storage unit, I have at least 15 or more c64s in various states of repair and maybe 8 floppy drives. I don't have many carts for it, probably only about 15 carts. It was one system that I never actively collected for but just kept falling in my lap until a few years ago with that last trunk score. Someday I'm going to pull all the commie stuff I have and start selling it but that is a ways off.

    Always had a hard time finding the Atari 8 bit stuff that I wanted.

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    Cherry (Level 1) wizardofwor1975's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bobotech View Post
    Always had a hard time finding the Atari 8 bit stuff that I wanted.
    Agreed, I've been very tempted to buy an Atari XEGS or an Atari 800 for our gameroom. But many of the Atari 800's carts are so uncommon or rare. Ork Attack and Into the Eagle's Nest come to mind.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bobotech View Post
    I used to trip over c64s about 10 years ago. They seem to be everywhere. The last big c64 score I got was about 4 years ago when a neighbor said "come over and haul this trunk away before I toss it" and it had 3 c64s, a fast load card, and a few games, and a couple of drives. Ironically the c64 is one system that I don't care at all about, I never had one growing up, I was an Atari 8 bit guy. So in my storage unit, I have at least 15 or more c64s in various states of repair and maybe 8 floppy drives. I don't have many carts for it, probably only about 15 carts. It was one system that I never actively collected for but just kept falling in my lap until a few years ago with that last trunk score. Someday I'm going to pull all the commie stuff I have and start selling it but that is a ways off.

    Always had a hard time finding the Atari 8 bit stuff that I wanted.
    Ever thought about sharing the wealth?

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    I think I still have a few C64's and maybe a couple of C128's in my collection. To my knowledge they all still work. Have a few disc drives and such as well. Also have a couple TI-99 Home Computers with Voice synth as well.
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    Quote Originally Posted by wizardofwor1975 View Post
    Agreed, I've been very tempted to buy an Atari XEGS or an Atari 800 for our gameroom. But many of the Atari 800's carts are so uncommon or rare. Ork Attack and Into the Eagle's Nest come to mind.
    That was always my problem, Atari 8-bit games are so damn hard to find around here. Years back I found a bunch of good games including a lot of third-party cartridges, and I excitedly posted about it online, only to have people basically say "so?" To them it was no big deal, finding Atari XE carts must be easy where they're from. Around my area it's next to impossible. That bunch of games I ended up getting around maybe 2005 or 2006, I only found more third-party cartridges about a month or so ago. Usually on the off-chance I ever find 8-bit carts, they're usually BASIC or Pac-Man or something dirt common. I would totally love to get a good selection of XEGS games, they just aren't out there in the wild. Or at least my area.

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